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CHALLENGES OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE ADOPTION IN INDIA

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CHALLENGES OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE ADOPTION IN INDIA

1. INTRODUCTION to transport related issues and a major component of green

India has ushered into the age where its demand for energy economy. Thus, switching over to Electric Vehicles (EVs)
is at an all-time high. The estimated per capita energy in these times seems highly felicitous and pragmatic step
requirement of the nation crossed 22000 MJ in 2017 itself
(Fig.1). Ongoing slaughter of natural deposits for fossil EVs form a mere 1% of total Indian automotive market but
fuels to power the machines has lead humanity to stare
into an impending energy crisis. Such looming calamity impact. Most of the Europe, China, America are leading the
would be near fatal for a country like India which like its world in e-mobility and with its high solar energy resource,
young demography and industries is supremely dependent India can take this as an opportunity to shift towards clean,
on vast imports of petroleum products. A major chunk green and sustainable transport. This article discusses the
of this supply goes to transport sector in form of Petrol, current state of e-mobility in India and other countries while
Diesel and CNG. The transportation sector is accountable bringing to the forefront peculiar challenges faced by Indian
for using 49% of total oil consumption and being the EV sector. Various policies favouring faster EV adoption in
biggest consumer of oil in the world (IEA, 2018). India’s the country are also discussed along with the plausible steps
transport sector consumes 99.6% of petrol (2 million tons) for effective and smooth transition to e-mobility.
and 70% of diesel (6 million tons) annually (PIB, 2014)
making India world’s third-largest energy consumer and ABROAD
Green House Gases (GHG) emitter after US and China,
costing a staggering Rs.8 lakh crores in import bill. India is a member of the Electric Vehicles Initiative (EVI), a
multi-governmental policy forum dedicated to accelerating
the deployment of EVs. The EV@30 campaign, launched in
2017, sets a collective aspirational goal for all EVI members
to have EVs contribute to 30% of all vehicle sales by 2030.
In 2013, Government of India launched a National Electric
Mobility Mission Plan 2020. Under the mission plan, the
Scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid
& Electric Vehicles) in India (‘FAME India’) was launched
in March, 2015 with a budget of Rs. 895 crores for two
years as Phase-I, which was subsequently extended up to
31st March, 2019. Several states like Karnataka, Kerala,
Telangana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and Uttar
Pradesh have also announced their EV policy to complement
Fig. 1 India’s Total Per Capita Energy Consumption
Adapted from: (CSO, 2018)) phase of this scheme was rolled out since April-2019 as
As a member of United Nations Framework Convention FAME-II with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 10,000 crores
on Climate Change (UNFCC), India is committed
including shared transport (PIB, 2019).
towards building a green economy and aims to achieve
175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022. In Worldwide, the state of e-mobility seems promising
this context, e-mobility is being perceived as the pancreas with over 40% increase in EV ownership from 1.2 to
1
Director, CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi, E-mail: [email protected]
2
Scientist, CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi

42 INDIAN HIGHWAYS
 TECHNICAL PAPER

1.8 million (Cobb, 2016) with a forecast of 5.5 million For instance, the then newly implemented CNG vehicles
EVs to be sold by 2025 (Dynamics, 2015). The early in early 2000s (in Delhi) led to huge jams due to unending
users of EV enjoyed major incentives like free charging queue of CNG vehicles at the fuelling stations. The required
and subsidized EV rates (Mersky, et al., 2016; Langbroek, infrastructure was far from ready at the time of roll-out which
et al., 2016). ‘Range anxiety’- the fear of running out of
electricity before reaching another charging station; is
found to be of great inconvenience to EV users (Wood, invoked debates on the sustainability of social, economic
2014) and a great deterrent to willingness to adopt EV and environmental aspects on its production and usage.
The lack of quality raw materials and low yield led to shut
down of various joint ventures for production of biofuel. The
bone of contention also brought forward broad issues like
charging infrastructure, c) lack of products comparable to effect of biofuels on land-use, deforestation, food economy
and subsequent climate change. So as to not repeat the old
conventional vehicles and d) less investment in augmenting
experiences, one must take note of impending issues in
EV manufacturing capacity. Attributed to these factors,
implementation and usage of EVs.
the accurate estimation of demand for EV charging of
a particular area is found to be challenging leading to 4. CHALLENGES OF EV IN INDIA
imbalance between supply and demand (Fig.2). Disparity EVs in India, as welcomed as they are, come bundled with
between demand and supply has marred the spread of other challenges that might adversely affect the vox-populi. One
unconventional transport fuels in the past; the experiences of such foremost concern is the availability of “electricity”.
from which we can gain from. Fig. 2 summarises the global The electricity requirement for EVs is projected to be
EV stock along with the total number of publicly available 79.9 gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2020 which will rise up to
installed EV chargers. It can be inferred that currently China 69.6 terawatt hours (TWh) by 2030 (EY & ASSOCHAM,
has the largest number of charging infrastructure in place 2018). This simply means that a substantial increase in
which is boosting its swift migration towards e-mobility. electricity production is required to offset the overloading
of local transformers and the grid. The risk of overloading
of grid is particularly high during peak hours when most
of the EV owners plan to simultaneously recharge. In a

to be achieved; the power infrastructure shall be put to test

especially in the urban context. A revamp of electrical
output, grids and transformers is inevitable for a seamless
EV charging experience. Complementing a part of this
electric demand by renewable energy sources like Solar
and Wind would be a long term and sound solution to the
burgeoning EV charging requirements. Exploiting its sub-
tropical geolocation, India already has proposition in place
for harnessing up to 100 gigawatts of solar energy by 2022
under International Solar Alliance (ISA) initiative. Solar
(Adapted from : power would provide cheap and reliable power and break
(IEA, 2018)) the strenuous wheel of energy dependence on foreign
nations. Apparently, EVs can gain huge momentum based
on the augmentation in solar energy capacity of India.
FUEL
The high upfront cost of EVs is another deterrent factor
Transport technology has long been hegemonized by the in its wider adoption. India is currently the fourth largest
Internal Combustion EngineVehicles (ICEVs) which primarily global market for cars and the budget cars form the major
use conventional petroleum fuels like Petrol or Diesel. segment of this sale (SIAM, 2019). A high upfront cost of
purchase along with battery replacement after few years
are also available which use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) does seem like a heavy investment to an average Indian
with a decent income. The high end EV cars (e.g. Tesla
remains quite low. In order to restraint the GHG emissions, Model S, Audi E-tron, BMW iX3 etc.) are lucrative as they
the vehicular technologists have tried to introduce greener are technologically superior to even conventional ICEVs
fuels like CNG and Biofuels. However, the roll out and and have a very short recharging time. The same is not true
implementation of these have not been without hiccups. regarding the budget EVs. Depending upon the vehicle

INDIAN HIGHWAYS 43
 TECHNICAL PAPER

technology; EVs have fast and slow charging. A fast charging

EV takes 30-45 minutes for 80% of recharging while a slow Incentives will certainly motivate the potential buyers to
charging EV takes somewhere between 6-8 hours. The fast purchase EVs which in turn will boost manufacturing.
charging is essentially a supreme feature of more expensive Fast adopting countries like Norway (with around 40%
EVs with highly advanced battery systems that support fast
charging without the danger of overheating. To make EVs
affordable in India, domestic production of quality batteries fee waivers, free parking etc., resulting in overall cost
has to be taken up in the right earnest. Apart from cost savings for the consumers. The provided incentives can
reduction, domestic battery production will liberate India be recovered from taxing the ICE vehicles which actually
emit pollution. Also, as EVs will reduce the nation’s
pretty much the case with dependency on petrol and diesel dependence on oil imports, it would in the long-run
vehicles. Unlike China, the raw materials (Lithium) and ultimately contribute towards building the forex reserve.
infrastructure for battery production are currently scarce in Taking cue from Norway model, SIAM has requested the
the country which could be given a jumpstart with the newly government to reduce GST to 5% (from current 12%),
launched National Energy Storage Mission (NESM). waive off road and toll taxes along with provision for
The upfront cost of EVs can also be neutralized by economies
of scale i.e. higher production level to offset the wholesale by SIAM to provide 50% reduction in power tariff for
costs in the long run; especially that of the battery which charging EVs. Incentives may also be provided for people
constitutes 30-40 % of the cost of the EVs. Rest aside, “range who are willing to support public charging facilities on
anxiety” is one of the most inhibiting factors for consumers their property along with provision of dedicated lanes
which arises from the fear of running out of power before for EVs on the roads. Thus, imparting initial incentives
reaching destination or a charging station. Range anxiety for popularisation of EVs may manifest to be a zero sum
stems through inadequacy of charging infrastructure. The
availability of sound charging infrastructure is a prerequisite
for high penetration of EVs. Currently, India has around
250 charging stations most of which are pilot based and
community charging stations. Comparing with China who is a grand challenge in itself for India. But with extensive
has become a global leader in number of installed charging R and D, meticulous planning and government interference
infrastructure with more than 1,00,000 charging stations; it the milestone is achievable. A healthy starting point will
is imperative to say that we have plenty of ground to cover. be focusing on enhancing the footprint of e-mobility
by converting public transit, inter para transit and two-
Boosting EV penetration is a mammoth task, one which wheelers to electric. Since public and shared transit modes
can’t be accomplished without robust R&D and incentives record highest proportions of passenger kilometre travelled
from the government. A major effort needs to be put into the (Roychowdhury & Dubey, 2018), it makes more sense to
planning for charging infrastructure-its optimum location,
its design, new charging technology, etc. Recognizing the the high upfront cost can be more readily recovered with low
consequential impact of EVs in nation, CRRI has ventured operating and maintenance cost as compared to private EVs
into R&D to investigate the willingness of Indian consumers
to adopt EVs as well as to design the optimum charging
infrastructure for EVs. The study of the optimal location of transport agencies is favourable for showcasing the EV
charging points will take into consideration parameters like
connectivity delay, coverage, density, quality-of-service and
investment cost. The accurate estimation of demand for EV
charging of a particular area is found to be challenging by bus depots. India is one of the leading global market in
previous researchers who have tried to analyse the problem the three-wheeler segment. Three wheelers are widely used
using heuristic or meta-heuristic algorithms including for short to medium trips enabling last mile connectivity
swarm optimization (Wu, et al., 2006), genetic algorithms in the cities. As penetration of e-rickshaws is already seen
(Maric, 2010), Binary Integer Programming (Aslam, et
al., 2012) etc.. Investigating the effect of Indian climate, three wheelers require a mild push from authorities for a
road condition, road geometry and driving behaviour on nation-wide adoption. Similarly, amongst private vehicles,
EV performance may be of particular use for its successful targeting two-wheeler segment would prove more fruitful
adoption. CRRI is resolved to carry out relevant research as it forms 80% of total automotive sales in India. With
that would facilitate successful adoption of EVs in the upcoming enterprises using two-wheelers for the courier
nation.

44 INDIAN HIGHWAYS
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TECHNICAL PAPER

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